Are employee engagement levels really falling? The CIPD Employee Outlook: Summer 2012 suggests this is the case. It finds that 58% of employees have "neutral engagement". The CIPD's new chief executive Peter Cheese the CIPD's puts this down to"unethical behaviours and corrosive cultures overseen by senior [business] leaders" in recent months which are "damaging employee engagement", Personnel Today reports.
But leading UK business blog Flip Chart Fairy Tales doubts both the veracity of these findings and the premise that it is reasonable for employers to expect their employees to be engaged at all. Blogger "Rick" analyses the statistics and finds employee engagement and trust scores in the CIPD's report haven't changed much in recent months and were about the same in 2006, before the banking crisis, the News International scandal and Libor fixing.
He argues:
And other evidence suggests that employees are in fact much more willing to work"If managers started with the expectation that people would be disengaged unless they did something to engage them, it might make them better managers... Is it really surprising that those with little stake or control in the organisation don't identify much with it or feel inclined to "go the extra mile"? The way most companies are organised and the unequal distribution of rewards ensure that the prevailing wind blows in the direction of disengagement. Left to their own devices, people will drift along with it. It takes a particularly skilled and enlightened manager to steer them in the opposite direction."
together with managers during the economic recession. The CBI/Harvey Nash Employment Trends Survey 2012 finds: "Contrary to the rhetoric from some unions, companies are working together with their staff to overcome challenging economic conditions."
These different perspectives suggest assumptions about engagement levels are open to challenge and that organisations should look more closely at whether management behaviour is more likely to engage employees or disengage them.
Read on for lots of links to recent articles on employee engagement and other HR strategy themes, including leadership, strategic workforce planning, HCM and HR metrics, performance management and global HR.
General HR strategy
HR excluded from HR strategy planning in one-third of organisations, says Personnel Today. According to the XpertHR report "How employers align HR with the business" (subscribers only), senior managers from outside the HR function participate in HR planning at exactly three-quarters of employers, while senior HR managers are involved at two-thirds (66%) of organisations.
Dave Ulrich on the Future of Human Resources. A mini interview with the most influential thinker in HR today, by Dan Schawbel on Forbes.
Who are the Most Influential HR directors and academics in 2012? By Siân Harrington, in HR magazine.
How strategists lead, by Harvard Business School professor Cynthia A. Montgomery, who reflects on what she has learned from senior executives about the unique value that strategic leaders can bring to their companies.
4 Reasons HR Needs a Collaboration Strategy. By Jason Averbook on Knowledge Infuser
Becoming more strategic: Three tips for any executive, from Michael Birshan and Jayanti Kar on McKinsey Quarterly.
Strategy matters more than ever, argues Seth Godin, and organisations must focus on the reality that "the revolution of the web means that the way you go to market, the structure of your offering, the model of your business - these are sufficient to cause you to lose, regardless of how you play the game."
Strategic, Strategic, Stra... Who Cares? By Kathy Rapp on Fistful of Talent
Leadership Isn't a Specialty Area, by Jane Perdue on Lead Change Group.
How Damaging Is a Bad Boss, Exactly? By Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman on Harvard Business Review blog.
Strategic workforce planning
Two articles on strategic workforce planning, by Nick Kemsley of Henley Business School. Both on Personnel Today. The first is "Strategic Workforce Planning - the challenge of moving from words to action". And the second: "How to get strategic workforce planning right", which discusses why planning the future needs of the workforce is not about producing a big spreadsheet full of numbers, but predicting organisational risks to the business strategy in time to mitigate them.
Future of work
Some useful resources and thought-leaders on the future world of work from Tomorrow Today.
HCM, HR data, metrics and analytics
The Canadian Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA) reacts to the US Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) announcement that it would be developing HR standards: "We Don't Need No Stinking Standardized HR Metrics..." By Kris Dunn on The HR Capitalist.
What To Measure? - The Great HR Metrics Debate, by Jason Averbook on Knowledge Infuser.
US study shows true return on wellness plan investment, by Christian Schappel on HR Morning. The American Journal of Health Promotion performed an analysis of 56 published studies on work site health promotion programs to determine the true ROI and impact of wellness programs.
5 Ways to Start Measuring HR Data, by Cathy Missildine Martin at Profitability Through Human Capital
Making the Most of Your Turnover Data, by Cathy Missildine Martin at ProfitabilityThrough Human Capital.
Making Sense of Big Data in HR (aka Talent Analytics). By Josh Bersin on Bersin Associates blog.
Employee engagement
Line managers play a crucial role in the creation of team spirit and engagement because they affect the atmosphere, focus and self-belief of their teams, according to research by the Institute of Employment Studies (IES).Reported in Personnel Today. "Teams and the engaging manager" -y Tamkin P, Robinson D, concludes that teams who score highly on engagement tend to attribute their high scores to team spirit, with the line manager an important part of its creation.
European employee productivity drops to five-year low, according to PwC's 'Key Trends in Human Capital 2012' report, reported in HR magazine. The report suggests this drop is driven by an increase in employee costs, which have jumped 16% from 2009 to $55,000 in 2011. So much for doing more with less???
"50 Shades of Engagement" Elizabeth Lupfer manages to get a reference to the other big talking point currently (other than the Olympics). On The Social Workplace.
The economy
A Eurobarometer survey shows most Europeans think that the situation of their national economy is tough, reports Marc Coleman on HRN Europe Blog.
CSR, business ethics and sustainability
Thirty faculty members from Cranfield School of Management have contributed to a new book which emphasises the need for joined-up working when confronting sustainability dilemmas. The authors tackle sustainability in relation to their individual disciplines including: marketing; logistics; HR and business performance.
Barclays scandal: ethical lessons for business. By Kate Russell, managing director at Russell HR Consulting. On Personnel Today.
"The Company behind the Brand" by Karina on CSR International. A report by Weber Shandwick found that consumers (70%) said they will avoid buying a product if they don't like the company that makes it.
Encouraging HR to wake up to CSR, by Elaine Cohen on CSR for HR
Performance management
CIPD Reward management 2012: supplement: aligning strategy and pay. The blurb says: "This report, produced in partnership with Benefex, looks at the relationships between pay practices and specific human resources outcomes. It explores aspects of the proposition that alignment of reward practices vertically, with business strategy, and horizontally, with workforce characteristics, leads to positive organisational outcomes".
Managers are ill-equipped to deal with underperformance. By John Eccleston on Personnel Today. Most managers are not competent enough to confront underperforming employees, according to a survey by XpertHR.
How to Inspire and Motivate High Performance Employees, by André de Waal on TLNT.
Measuring An Employee's Worth? Consider Influence, by E.B. Boyd on Fast Company blog. The performance review of the future will include services like Salesforce.com's Chatter and its Influencers feature, which measures how much weight you carry among your peers, argues Boyd.
Company culture
Dysfunctional Internal Competition at Microsoft: We've seen the enemy, and it is us! By Bob Sutton Work Matters
Global HR
Firms face talent management challenge in emerging markets, with only 20% thinking their company manages talent effectively across all markets. Reported in People Management.
Developing global leaders: companies must cultivate leaders for global markets.Dispelling five common myths about globalization is a good place to start. By Pankaj Ghemawat on McKinsey Quarterly.
The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people, by Richard Dobbs, Anu Madgavkar, Dominic Barton, Eric Labaye, James Manyika, Charles Roxburgh, Susan Lund, Siddarth Madhav on McKinsey Quarterly.
Managing at global scale: McKinsey Global Survey results show executives at global companies are satisfied with their organisations' overall capabilities, but see room to improve in innovation and motivation. Better leaders are the key.
How multinationals can attract the talent they need. Competition for talent in emerging markets is heating up. Global companies should groom local highfliers--and actively encourage more managers to leave home. By Martin Dewhurst, Matthew Pettigrew, and Ramesh Srinivasan on McKinsey Quarterly.
Leading in the 21st century, six global leaders confront the personal and professional challenges of a new era of uncertainty. By Dominic Barton, Andrew Grant, and Michelle Horn on McKinsey Quarterly.
Events
The human resource summit, Brussels, 10-12 October 2012. Organised by Summit.
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